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Don't forget mandatory voting.
Making everyone vote even if they don't really care means that working your supporters up into a frothing rage doesn't work. They're already all going to turn up. If you want to actually win elections, you suddenly have to win over the middle.
If you do that, make sure it's a guaranteed public holiday or have laws in place to ensure workers can get time off to vote.
the way this works in australia is that election day is always a sunday (i think? or saturday?) but you can early vote at any number of larger polling stations without giving a reason… also postal vote
but given your name, maybe you know that? :p
Or, you know, just have mail in voting available nationwide.
It has more advantages than just the ones you describe, although even that alone is good enough reason to do it.
It also forces the government to make voting easy. To put them at a time when a maximum number of people can make it (in Australia elections are on a Saturday, when most people are not working—prepoll is also extremely easy to do they just ask you if you're unable to vote on election day, without requiring any actual proof, and postal voting not much harder than that). To have numerous places to vote within easy access of where everyone is.
It also forces the government to make voting easy.
No it doesn't. I could easily see Republicans making voting very difficult under such a system, particularly within zip codes that vote for Democrats. This would punish Dem supporters who failed to vote, and would generally make the public hostile to mandatory voting - which would help build public support for the abolition of such mandatory voting
The government is only incentivized to make voting easy if all major parties are loyal to the public. That isn't the case in the United States
I don't think mandatory voting is a good solution. This is mostly practices in autocratic/dictatorial states, and would have a bad taste to it.
What should be done is to either make voting day a public holiday (with mandatory "half day off" rule for anyone who would still have to work in retail or services), or just move it to a Sunday, like many other countries have done ages ago.
Australia is a dictatorship?
It is the surprising exception to the rule. I never questioned this, but are there any real reasons for mandatory voting in Australia?
We have a small population and mandatory voting means everyone gets a vote by default. We also have a different culture around voting because the majority of us have to do it. We have sausage sizzles and democracy dogs. I've personally worked at polls all over my state and there's never been a line longer than 10 people. It takes most people like 5 mins max to vote. We make voting easy in Australia because everyone has to do it.
It's worth noting that it's not all that mandatory. It's relatively easy to simply avoid enrolling to vote. You're not automatically enrolled in other words. Also it's really easy to just sign your name off at the poll and hand in a blank vote. The worst outcome of not voting is a fine that you can pretty easily get out of as well.
there’s never been a line longer than 10 people. It takes most people like 5 mins max to vote. We make voting easy
In the US, this is also part of our divisiveness. I’ve always found biting to be quick, easy, convenient. Never much of a line and it moves fast. Registration to vote is by default at RMV or can be done directly. Mail in or absentee voting is trivially available.
Stories of people waiting in line for hours is just as alien to me as it is to you. You cant escape the obvious correlations where it is more difficult to vote depending on which political party is dominant, the wealth of the voting area, and racial makeup. It also strongly corresponds with gerrymandering.
Is Belgium also a surprising exception?
No, obviously you have a dictator king with prima nocta in the constitution as an obligation - he now has to sleep with every single newly wed (separately) on their (same) wedding night or be executed.
But it's tradition, it would be wrong to change it now. If I was fucked by the king, so needs to be everyone else or it wouldn't be fair.
(This post was made with the help of /s)
I think this is the wrong question. Why is voting optional? We can crow about nebulous "freedom", but we are forced to do much harder things all the time. Once every few years, we're asked to make a few decisions.
If the idea is that the citizens select leaders, but it's incredibly easy to opt out, what you have is a biased selection committee. We can argue all day about the various biases involved and if they matter, but the reality is that it's not burdensome on Australians and it actually makes sense to get your source election data as close to based on public sentiment as you can.